Most accents in the British North American colonies were imported from whatever region in the British Isles the earliest settlers came from. Thus, what we think of today as a particular brand of Southern drawl may actually be a three-centuries-removed variant of a Scottish lowland burr.

The various Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who invaded Britain after 437 AD brought with them their own dialects of West Germanic. These formed the basis for the emergence of later dialect areas. The submergence of the various British Celtic languages (of which Welsh is the only modern survivor) also lead to innovations in British English. The Viking invasions resulted in more Norse influence in the north than in the south, thereby contributing another layer to the existing dialects. Likewise, the Norman French invaders influenced the south more than the north, which came to be more conservative linguistically. The Great Vowel Shift of the 1500's didn't affect northern English dialects, which came to be called Scots English. Because of the long history of dialect creation in the English speaking areas of Great Britain, there are more dialects of English in Britain than in America, Canada, and Australia combined. (Unfortunately, we don't have time to cover modern British English dialects in any detail.)

British colonization of other continents led to the establishment of various colonial, or overseas, dialects. These dialects developed because of the following factors: 1) the language spoken by emigrants who first established the colony was a particular variety of British English--the so-called founder's effect; 2) this may have mixed with some non-English language in the colony--the so-called substrate effect; 3) there may have been further mixing with other English dialects in the colony--the leveling effect of dialect mixing; 4) innovations in British English that did not occur in the more conservative overseas dialect, or conversely, innovation in the colonial dialect (for any of the three previous reasons) which did not occur in Britain.

The main dialect areas of the US can be traced to the four main migrations of English speaking people to America from the British Isles during the colonial period (1607-1775).

Now hold on a minute. Y'all would think that the only folks what settled the American South was British. If that's the case, then how do you account for the difference between the Southern accent and the Northern and Western American accents? Y'all know that for a long time--perhaps today the South still has the highest percentage of black folks--the South had the highest percentage of Africans who were enslaved and brought to America. Them Africans weren't taught to speak the King's English. In fact they weren't taught nothin' at all. They had to learn English as best and as fast as they could so they could understand and communicate with the slavesellers and slaveholders. And enslaved black folks' variety of English had a major influence on Southern idioms as well. Not only is there a phonological factor, but there is also a word factor. For example, words like okra, gumbo, and goobers come from some West African languages. My brain is a little fried right now so I can't think of who to tell you to read to find this information, but the studies are out there. Of course it's difficult pinning any one saying or sound down to specific African and probably British groups, but the influence is there. And then of course there's the influence of some Native American languages as well. I guess we see those in place names rather than phonology per se. And then of course, if we're thinking about Louisiana, then you can't count out the influcence of the French. And then in Texas, which some folks think ain't part of the South, but is more part of the Southwest, you can't count out the influence of Spanish.

Originally posted by celestina Now hold on a minute. Y'all would think that the only folks what settled the American South was British. If that's the case, then how do you account for the difference between the Southern accent and the Northern and Western American accents? Y'all know that for a long time--perhaps today the South still has the highest percentage of black folks--the South had the highest percentage of Africans who were enslaved and brought to America. Them Africans weren't taught to speak the King's English. In fact they weren't taught nothin' at all. They had to learn English as best and as fast as they could so they could understand and communicate with the slavesellers and slaveholders. And enslaved black folks' variety of English had a major influence on Southern idioms as well. Not only is there a phonological factor, but there is also a word factor. For example, words like okra, gumbo, and goobers come from some West African languages. My brain is a little fried right now so I can't think of who to tell you to read to find this information, but the studies are out there. Of course it's difficult pinning any one saying or sound down to specific African and probably British groups, but the influence is there.

Black English developed in the Southern states when speakers of dozens of West African languages were abruptly forced to abandon their native tongues and learn English. Slaves from different tribes couldn't communicate with one another--in fact, masters deliberately tried to separate slaves who could speak the same language. Since the Africans had to communicate with one another, as well as with the whites, a kind of compromise language evolved on the basis of English and a mixture of the original West African languages. Such a makeshift, compromize language, used as a second language by adults, is known as a pidgin. When a pidgin becomes the native language of the next generation, it becomes a creole--a full-fledged language. The African-English creole in the American colonies evolved into today's Black English.

Black English was most influenced by the speech of the southern whites.

Black English, in turn, gradually influenced the speech of southern whites--especially the children of the aristocratic slave owners. Given the social prejudices of the Old South, this seems paradoxical. However, remember that throughout all the slave owning areas, black nannies helped raise white children, and the children of blacks and whites played freely together before the Civil War. Since language features acquired in early childhood tend to be kept throughout life, Southern English naturally became mixed with Black English.

Let's look more closely at how Black English developed on the basis of West African Dialects. Whenever a group of adults is forced to learn a second language, the language learned retains many features of the original native language. Thus, the English of black slaves retained many features that were African and not present in English at all. The children of the slaves learned this form of English as their native language. Thus, on the basis of language mixing, a new dialect, called a creole, was born. This process--at least in some small degree-- characterizes the English of all Americans whose parents spoke English as a second language. But in the case of African Americans, due to the social separation they lived under from the very start, the differences were stronger and more lasting.

Main features carried over from West African languages.

--No use of the linking verb 'to be' or generalization of one form for it.

--emphasis on aspect rather than tense: He workin' (right now) vs. He be workin'. This is found in many West African languages.

A large number of West African words came into Standard American through the medium of Black English: bug (bugu = annoy), dig (degu/ understand), tote bag (tota = carry in Kikonga), hip (Wolof hepicat one who has his eyes wide open), voodoo (obosum, guardian spirit) mumbo jumbo (from name of a West African god), jazz (? Bantu from Arabic jazib one who allures), banjo (mbanza?), chigger (jigger/ bloodsucking mite), goober (nguba /Bantu), okra (nkruman/ Bantu), yam (njami/ Senegal), banana (Wolof). Also, the phrases: sweet talking, every which way; to bad-mouth, high-five are from Black English--seem to be either American innovations or loan translations from West African languages.

The speech of African Americans gradually became more like the speech of their southern white neighbors--a process called decreolization. (And the speech of the whites became slightly more like that of the blacks). However, in a few areas, the original African English creole was preserved more fully. There is one dialect of Black English still spoken on the Georgia coast, called Gullah, which is still spoken there by about 20,000 people; it is thought to represents the closest thing to the original creole.

After the Civil War, Black English continued to evolve and change, especially in the creation of new vocabulary. After the 1920's millions of blacks migrated to northern cities, where various varieties of Black English continue to develop.